The Journey Home (2.3)

It was five o'clock in the morning when Miss Tate tiptoed in to wake Rivi, who rolled over and sat up in her bed, already alert.

"I was going to drive you to school for your first day, but something came up. I've been called in early to work. I can have the agency send someone else to drive you to school," Miss Tate explained.

"Where is the school?" Rivi asked.

"Just a few blocks away. You can see it from the end of this road."

"Oh, that's fine. I can walk. I'll be ok. What time will you be home in the evening?" Rivi asked, as she scooted to sit on the edge of the bed.

Miss Tate blinked at her for a few moments, unsure of what to make of Rivi's confidence.

Certainly a change from the meek girl I met last night, she thought.

"Um, I'm afraid that it'll be sometime after dinner, but there's plenty of food in the kitchen. You can call me if you need help. Just press the 'star' key on the phone downstairs. I programmed it last night to make it easier for you to call my cell. As long as you're sure you don't want me to send someone to drive you, I can set directions to the school on the kitchen table. It's not far. "

"I'm sure I'll manage."

"All right," Miss Tate paused, "Rivinaig, none of the kids at school, nor any on Earth, for that matter, are accustomed to seeing people with abilities such as yours. Please, be careful."

"I will," Rivi replied. "If word got out that I was here, the Aruk would find me."

"Okay," Miss Tate said, satisfied that Rivi seemed to understand the danger.

Rivi got out of bed as Miss Tate left the room. Realizing that she was still dressed in her clothes from Aun, she decided she should change. Walking around her room, she opened drawer after drawer and then, finally, looked in the closet, where five different sets of shirts and pants hung, neatly pressed. There were other smaller articles, like socks, arranged neatly in their own cubbyholes. Rivi shrugged and chose a set of each, remembering that Ankh had taught them how the citizens of Earth normally dressed during each particular season. She removed her own articles of clothing and proceeded to dress herself accordingly.

Rivi slipped her palmtop into her back pocket and went downstairs and found the kitchen. The directions to the school were on the table along with a set of notebooks, pencils, and a backpack. She put the supplies into the backpack and then went to look around the rest of the house.

She found a room with a large table and another room that had two machines in it. Rivi recognized the machines from Ankh's classes: a washer and a dryer. She then found a room with a couch and an armchair facing a large black box with a blank screen. Frowning slightly, Rivi sat down on the couch and turned the TV on with her mind.

As pictures and words began to reach her, Rivi drifted off into boredom. She closed her eyes, shook her head to get rid of the pictures, and shut the television off.

"Mind-numbing," she said simply as she continued her tour.

She found, to her surprise, a computer sitting in the next room. Rivi turned on and accessed the computer with her mind, instantly finding and destroying five viruses, one of which would have soon become capable of attacking the computer's boot sector. After she repaired the damage the viruses had caused, she found the computer to be more primitive than those to which she was accustomed. She decided to leave it alone, and left the room.

"Earth needs to get beyond single pairs of gateways and the binary language of ones and zeros before it will make any vast improvement in technology," Rivi said to herself, as she walked out the back door into the fence-enclosed back yard.

She found a ladder leading to the kitchen roof and decided to investigate. At the top, she found a newly shingled, shallowly-sloped roof. Walking out onto the roof, she found herself outside of her bedroom and sat down on the wooden window ledge. She looked up into the stars, which were growing dimmer with the approaching sunrise, and found where planet Aun would be if it were bright enough to be seen at this distance. Gazing at that one spot, she began to wonder how the rest of the children were faring.

An hour later, as the sun had just begun to brighten the early morning sky, the computer she had put into her pants pocket fought for her mind's attention, just as she had taught it. Giving it a second glance, she found that it was time for her to leave. Rivi got down off the roof and went back into the kitchen. She picked up her backpack, read the directions a few times to memorize them, and then set off toward the school.

#

Rivi arrived at Jackfort High early, which was how she preferred it. She was surprised to see that there were already quite a few students at the school. Most of the students seemed to prefer hanging out outside the building. Only a handful were actually heading inside. Rivi entered through the main door of the two-story building and located the main office.

Rivi entered the office and told the secretary that she was new to the school. Miss Tate had, apparently, already faxed the secretary Rivi's paperwork earlier that morning. The secretary promptly pulled out a file and gave Rivi her class schedule, as well as directions to her first class. As Rivi headed out of the office, she paused with her hand on the doorknob. She had spotted her name across the top of the class schedule: Rivinaig Tate. She realized, with a smile, that Mrs. Tate must have given Rivi her last name. Rivi looked over the schedule once more, folded it and put it into her backpack and then shut the office door behind her.

With her schedule memorized and tucked into her backpack, Rivi proceeded to try to find her first class.

There has to be a more efficient way of arranging these classes, Rivi thought to herself.

Suddenly, four figures at the far end of the hall caught her attention. As she approached, she realized that three of the boys were bullying the fourth one.

"I thought we told you to stay off of our street, Danny boy?" the oldest bully jeered as he pushed the fourth boy.

"My ... my house is at th ... the end of the street next to yours ... It's the fastest way to school," the boy answered, struggling to keep a hold on his stack of books and papers.

"So what?" the bigger boy asked, shrugging.

"You need to teach him, Bill!" one of the bullies suggested.

"You know, I think I will," the taller 'Bill' character said, looking toward the fourth boy with a mean sneer, then knocking the stack of books out of the boy's hands and onto the floor.

Bill pushed the boy, and Rivi felt her insides turn red hot. She fought to maintain her cool composure as memories of abuse at the hands of the Aruk tried to flood her mind. As the fourth boy's head made contact with the wall behind him, Rivi manipulated the concrete atoms to soften the impact.

"Hey!" Rivi called as she approached, stepping over a few of the books on the floor. "Is there a reason why you are bothering this boy?"

"Yeah. We feel like it," Bill challenged. "You think you can do somethin' about it?"

"The word is 'something,' and I can do quite a bit, so I wouldn't try irritating me," Rivi answered with a sly smile.

"Ya' hear that, boys? This little girl doesn't want to be 'irritated,'" Bill jeered, using his hands to embellish 'irritated' with air-quotes, "I bet she's new and scared!"

Rivi narrowed her eyes, smiled, and nodded.

"Yes, I am new," she answered, which made the bullies smirk, "but no, I'm not scared at all," Rivi continued, her smile melting into a scowl.

The bully shrugged, signaled to his two friends, and they all sauntered off.

Rivi bent down to help the fourth boy pick up his books. She handed him the stack she had collected, and asked politely if he was all right.

"I'll be fine, but you shouldn't have helped. Now they'll only make it worse on me for being defended by a girl," the boy answered with remorse.

Rivi raised her eyebrows and took one of his schoolbooks off the top of the stack in his arms. She opened the front cover and found a name written inside.

"Your name is Daniel Peterson?" Rivi asked, giving the book back as Daniel answered with a nod. "Well, Daniel, at what point in time in the history of the United States of America did its citizens go back to being ruled and pushed around by bullies?" she asked, giving him a long look before she walked off toward her class.

Rivi shook her head, unable to help wishing she was back in the well-ordered society on Aun.